Until You Believe
by TheKikGeek
Summary: "Potter, do you know how freezing the lake is in February!"   A short One-Shot of how Lily might have said yes.


Lily Evans sat, reading underneath the tall oak tree that stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. For anyone that happened to look her way, they might have thought she was studying for the Seventh Year N.E. test in only a few months. With the unusual sunshine and warmth for the 10th of February, many other students were studying as well. However, these people would be wrong about Miss Evans. Though she did have her Transfiguration textbook open in front of her, her mind was far from the legal procedure of becoming a full fledged Animagus. Instead, they were resting on a certain black haired, Quidditch Captain, Marauder.

Lily turned the page as she discreetly looked at her fellow Head mate. He, along with the rest of his tight nit group of friends, was enjoying the sunshine by the lake. Lily couldn't stop herself from smiling when she heard his laugh, at the result of Sirius Black's joke. You see, as much as she hated to admit it (only to herself, mind you), Lily Evans was in love with James Potter. She loved everything about him. His humor. His friendly, yet serious attitude. His ability to help others with no second thought. And his physical physique wasn't too bad either. The only problem was he didn't love her back.

Sure, he kept asking her out, but that was back in fifth and sixth year. What was she to expect? That he would keep after her, even when she told him no countless times? She knew she was pushing her luck, but she couldn't help herself. She liked the attention he was giving her. And she knew he didn't really like her back. If he did, would he still have taken Stacy Clenton to the Winterball last year?

Even after knowing this, that he was only chasing her as a joke, she couldn't help get excited when she found out they would be partners the entire year. And on the train, during that first meeting, she was ready. It was her last year and she was determined to make it the best. When he was going to ask her out, she was going to say yes. And if it turned out to be a joke, then at least she would know and could move on. Except, he never asked her.

Within the first few weeks, and no proposal, Lily realized that he had finally gotten over her. Well, not her, because that would mean he would have to like her first. No, he got over the joke. Lily couldn't deny he had matured over the summer. No more mindless pranks in the hallways … or on her feelings. He had gone up to her, around the second week of school, and told her that he thought the best thing for them to do was just be civil towards each other during the school year.

And they had. When they were in the Head dorm room together, they'd make small talk. They would help each other on homework and wish each other good luck on his Quidditch game or her chess tournament. Lily liked when they talked to each other, but it all just felt too fake towards each other, and Lily wished for anything else.

Lily kept her glance on the group of four a bit longer than she would have liked. She locked eyes with Sirius Black and quickly looked back to her book when she saw him smirk. She heard a commotion over by the boys, as if they were arguing, but they were too quite for Lily to make out any words. It was only when she heard it get louder did she brave a chance to look up.

James was being pushed forward by his three mates.

She kept her head down until she saw a group of feet by her bag. With a quick grunt and jerk forward, Lily saw three pair of feet disappear. She knew James' friends pushed him towards her and ran away, and her theory was confirmed when an awkward James Potter sat next to her.

"Um … hi."

"Hello," Lily responded, returning to her book. She wasn't going to let him tear down her forces so easily.

"What are you doing?"

Lily slammed down her book and rolled her eyes and James.

"Honestly, what does it look like I am doing? I have my Transfiguration book right here on my lap, my notes to the side. What else could I be doing?"

"Going to Hogsmade with me this weekend as my Valentine?"

He had said it so fast, she wasn't sure if she had heard him right. She just stared, mouth hung open, eyes in shock, at his pleading face.

Isn't this what she wanted? She swore the next time he would ask her out, she would say yes. But, though she refrained from immediately saying "no", she couldn't bring herself to saying yes, either.

She knew it was a joke. She _knew_ it was. Why would she purposely put herself through the eventual heart break? No. Even though she wanted to say yes, she needed to say no.

"Why should I?" Instead of the "no" she told herself to say, she wanted, no, _needed_ to know why he thought this joke was so funny. That after months, he decided to bring it make.

"What? Be … because I really like you, Lily."

"Oh, please," Lily interrupted as she hurriedly put her notes in her bag. "Don't give me that crap." Lily pushed herself off the ground and reached for her bag. "I know it is all a joke."

James grabbed her arm and pushed himself off the ground, not letting her go.

"What do you mean? What joke?" He spoke him such passion, Lily could feel herself falling in love with him all over again. She let tears prick her eyes as she realized she could never really be with him.

"Come off it," she spoke weakly was she tried to remove herself from his grasp. "The whole school knows. It's the reason you would ask me out."

James pulled Lily closer and shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers.

"The reason that I kept asking you out, and the whole school _does_ know it, is because I am madly in love with you."

There it was. The words Lily waited so long to hear. The words that would help her go to sleep. The words that would make all other life problems disappear. And yet, as much as Lily wanted to believe it, there was still a nagging inside of her. How did she know this wasn't just another joke?

"Prove it," She said, pulling away from James, not daring to look him in the eyes. They stood there for a stiff, quite moment before James walked away from her.

"See!" She screamed after him, gaining the attention of all the other students on the lawn. "I told you you didn't love me!"

James angrily marched right back to Lily, looking as if someone insulted something dear to him, like his mother or something.

"I _do_ love you Lily. I just can't take it anymore. All these fake pleasantries. That's not you. That's not me. This is me proving how much I love you!"

He turned back from her, walking towards his friends. Lily walked after him a short distance before yelling at him once more.

"That's how you are proving it to me? Leaving me?" James didn't respond to Lily. Instead, he did something no one expected. He started undressing.

Lily stood in utter disbelief as he dwindled his apparel down to only his boxers. There were a few cat calls and wolf whistles made towards him, but James ignored them all. He only focused on Lily, who was a bright shade of red. Remember that physique she loved so much?

"This is how I will show you." Lily snapped back to focus.

"I will stay in the lake until you believe me."

Before Lily could even comprehend what was happening, James turned and dove into the lake. Lily screamed and ran to the edge. When she reached it, James had resurfaced. He waved the waters light to keep afloat.

"James, you are being ridiculous right now. Do you know how _freezing_ the lake is in February?"

"I ...I thi-think I...I...I...kn-know, Lily." Through his shattering teeth, James threw a smile towards Lily. She smirked and folded her arms.

"I really don't know how this is suppose to convince me, James."

James laughed as continued to splash water around, whole body shaking. "N-now you … you … you … te-tell me."

Lily smiled softly, with a raised eyebrow, as she watched her lover freeze. That was until she saw something swim past his right side. She slowly backed away from the edge, a look of terror on her face.

"James," she said quietly and quickly. James looked up and smiled. "James, get out of there. Now."

"So you believe me now? Wow, I didn't think it would work!"

She shook her head as she saw two more things swim by. Lily didn't know what they were, but she knew no normal animals were in this lake.

"No? Then I'll just stay here until you believe I love you."

"Prongs, mate. Get out." Sirius came to the edge and saw what Lily saw.

"Yeah, James. There is something in the lake. It doesn't look good. Get out," Remus came and joined in. James face momentarily flashed with fright before being replaced with determination.

"No."

Lily, as well as the Marauders, all started arguing with him, but he shook his head. "Not until Lily believes me,"

Everyone turned to Lily, the one person that had the power to make James get out. "James, don't do this. More are coming. Get out of there!"

James looked up at Lily, completely calm again. "Lily Maria Evans, I came in here for one reason. To prove I love you-"

James got cut off as something pulled him under. Lily screamed and tried to jump into the lake to get James, but someone was holding her back.

"James! James, come back!"

There was no answer, except the shocked gasps of the audience the scene had caused and the ripples of the water left by James.

"James, come back! James, I believe you! I know you love me. I know you've always loved me. I love you James, come back!" Lily screamed, fighting to get into the water, all the while something or someone was pulling her back. Eventually, the water stopped moving altogether and Lily collapsed to the ground, in a fit of tears.

Lily kept screaming and crying and she felt the arms that were holding her back fall from weakness, but she was too weak to go into the water anymore. She knew there was no point.

All of a sudden, she felt cold. But not just cold. She felt cold and … wet. She quickly turned around and cried in happiness to see James holding her. He had small, circular teeth marks all over his body, but had the biggest smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but Lily pushed him back and kissed him. James smiled into the kiss and after a few moments, broke it off.

"I love you, Lily Evans." Lily smiled and wrapped her arms over him, to try and give him some warmth.

"I know," she replied. "and I love you, James Potter."

He laughed and gave her a quick kiss. "I know."

After and few moments of them just staring at each other, smiling, James talked again.

"So … _will_ you be my Valentine?"

* * *

><p><strong>So there is another one -shot done. I am slowly building my confidence to write an actual story, but for now, this is all I feel comfortable with.<strong>

**I want to thank _HermioneGirl96_ for pointing at a kind of confusing mistake I made, but to my defense, I wrote this in under an hour, right before I went to bed and, though I did reread it three times, I accidentally switched to 1st person in the middle of the story, so sorry about that!**

**Wow, my writings professor would have a fit if he knew I just wrote a huge run on sentence like that ... oppies.**

** Well, thank you all for support so far!**

**TheKikGeek**


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